Thursday, 8 December 2016

A Set Of Hand Stitched Christmas Napkins

Shall we call 2016 the year of the napkin? You would think that I'd had enough of cross stitching onto small squares of fabric this year, but no, it's still a lovely thing to do.

These are for Christmas and Boxing Day, for special family meals. Then they will be washed and packed away, ready to bring out next year. Isn't unpacking boxes of Christmas decorations one of the nicest things? Full of treasures you love and haven't seen for eleven months, waiting to be handled and displayed once again.

I really enjoyed deciding what to sew on each one. The robin was an obvious choice and I quite liked making the pattern on a piece of graph paper, trying to turn an organic shape into a series of squares.

Likewise the parcel wrapped in brown paper and the Christmas pudding.

The tree, snowflake and mittens are from the pattern for Alicia Paulson's Winterwoods sampler (which I think might still be one of my favourite things that I've made, ever).

I deliberately didn't iron these napkins. I like the way linen looks when it's freshly washed and softly crinkled.

I can't wait to use them this Christmas. I am already looking forward to setting the table on Christmas Day, making it look pretty and festive with a white cloth and lots of greenery and candles. Of course we all know that it only stays perfect for about five minutes before it is covered in opened crackers, paper hats, spilt gravy and dollops of cranberry jelly, but it's still something I enjoy doing.

But before that I need to: write and post cards, finish buying and making gifts, wrap gifts, buy a tree, decorate the tree, decorate the house...oh, you know, not much.

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Thank you ever so much for your lovely comments about Molly. She is doing great. It's hard work but she's worth it and making big improvements in behaviour every day, and coming out of her shell more too.

Read about your Molly with great interest. We have two rescued dogs with the German Shepherd who was initially trained as a guard dog having special needs. But they are both much loved by us and so loyal. What lovely things you have and share. I like how so many are little because I believe the small and simple bits in life are the most pleasurable.

Your napkins are so nice (although I would press them, if they were mine, since I am not so fond of linen exactly because it's crinkly) - I can't decide whether I love the robin most, or the snow flake, or the Christmas pudding. Probably the robin!Seeing that you made six but your household has four humans (and one canine) members, are the other two for your parents or will you have other guests on Christmas Day?

Like you, I love unpacking the Christmas box - it is like greeting old friends!

These are beautiful, Gillian, and I love the way you've photographed them. I agree about christmas decorations, although the time in between packing them away and getting them out again seems to have shrunk! I'm glad to hear Molly is settling in well. x

I was feeling all bah humbug, and mumbling about "How can anybody have the time to cross stitch on napkins...." but that's not fair. It's my own fault I spend my time not cross stitching, because I'm busy elsewhere. And being totally honest I love your napkins. How beautiful will they be to use year after year? And such a lovely sign of caring and attention to detail. Please accept my inner Scrooge's apology and my reformed Scrooge loves them.

Hi Gillian, your napkins came out so beautifully. I love that they're all different. It was a very good idea to use motifs from the Winterwoods sampler. They all work so well together. I love your bespoke robin too, very sweet and realistic too, I think. Thanks for joining in with my party!